Do your own doing
And bring them to me
Reflexive relationship
We take on each other
Send forth and return
Where is a name?
Carried within, on your lips and hands.
[For full chapter, click here
We continue the translation of Sinai. This time, it is “Thou
shalt not carry the name of God in vain” (lo tisa shem…la-shav) and
“Remember the Sabbath” that are brought down to earth. Lo tisa shem…la-shav
is transformed into lo tisa shama shav-- “Do not bear false
report,” the “name” (shem) becoming “rumour” (shema). This becomes
a section on preserving justice, relating to the hated, and protecting the weak,
from the animal up (the relationship to animal becomes a central leitword
of this section). The name of God translated to justice on earth, with the
Sabbath redefined from a day of holiness, consecrated to God, to a day that allows
rest for the weak—from the animal, to the slave, to the alien: “six days thou
shalt do thy work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest; that thine ox and
thine ass may have rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be
refreshed.” Man’s “deeds” (maase) become central. It is they that are celebrated
during the holidays, and what must ultimately be brought to God. The section
closes chiatically with a return to the “name”: “Make no mention of the name
of other gods, do not make it heard with your mouth.” The “name” burns within
the angel that will lead Israel to “the place that I have prepared.” He will
not “carry” (tisa) sin, “for my Name is within him.”]
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